OAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (Russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya “Energiya” im. S. P. Koroleva), also known as RSC Energia (РКК «Энергия», RKK “Energiya”), is a Russian manufacturer of spacecraft and space station components. The company is the prime developer and contractor of the Russian manned spaceflight program; it also owns a majority of Sea Launch.[1] Its name is derived from Sergei Korolev, the first chief of its design bureau, and the Russian word for energy.

Energia is the largest company of the Russian space industry and one of its key players. It is responsible for all operations involving human spaceflight and is the lead developer of the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, and the lead developer of the Russian end of the International Space Station. In the mid-2000s, the company employed 22,000—30,000 people.[2]

The company continues to dominate a large part of the Russian space program, and a considerable part of the World's space program, with its Soyuz spacecraft having become the only crewed spacecraft conducting regular flights and the exclusive crew transport vehicle for the International Space Station after the Space Shuttle retirement. As of 2013[update] this will remain unchanged until a crewed US spacecraft from the Commercial Crew Development program will fly to the ISS – with the Chinese Shenzhou program being the only other program in the world with planned semi-regular crewed spaceflights.

The President of Energia, Vitaly Lopota, was removed from his post as president on August 1, 2014. Dmitry Rogozin indicated that this was the start of "Long-awaited personnel reform in [the Russian] space industry ... Tough times require tough decisions."[5] Lopota was offered the position of vice president for technological development in the United Rocket and Space Corporation,[5] the new company formed in 2013 to re-nationalize the Russian space industry.[7]

Development of a pod designed for clearing near-Earth space of satellite debris. The new device is planned to be assembled by 2020 and tested by 2023. The concept is to build the device to use a nuclear power source so that it could remain on task for up to 15 years, primarily working in the geosynchronous orbit zone. Debris collected would be de-orbited to re-enter over the ocean.[8]